We have a fellow here who will make any size you want, at competitive prices. PM Lathesmith for details.
|
   
   
|
|
We have a fellow here who will make any size you want, at competitive prices. PM Lathesmith for details.
That said, 0.431" bullets will work nicely in your 0.432+" throats.
Curious, shoot the .431 boolits before you do anything else. If the accuracy is not what you are looking for and it doesn't lead the barrel, you can always go up to the .432 or down to a .430. You are right to start in the middle measurement and you just might not have to do anything. I have a friend who has a Ruger SRH 454 with .451 throats and a .453 barrel and it shoots like a rifle with no leading at all. That is certainly contradictory to all the theories past and present but I have shot that gun as much as he has and it is a fact that it does not lead. Some of the loads were 260 gr boolits cast with range scrap and they are fairly soft. Admittedly, they were powder coated, which will let a barrel run a bit faster before it leads, but these were 1800fps and it's no wimpy load for a 260 gr. When I slugged the barrel of this gun, I could feel some restriction in the frame area too so it has all the bad qualities a revolver should typically not have to shoot well-but it does.
IT AINT what ya shoot--its how ya shoot it. NONE of us are as smart as ALL of us!
I've hand lapped a few barrels as well as fired lapped a couple. Fire lapping is definitely more fun and less tedious. You have much more control hand lapping and can feel tight and loose spots -like thread choke- and easily stop lapping when you feel everything even out. You already have most if not all the equipment you need for hand lapping with your casting pot, ladle, etc. PM me if you'd be interested in a more detailed walk through. Bear in mind that when fire lapping you are working the throats to bore in a ratio of 6:1 so the throats take less of a hit during the operation. My personal opinion is that I would not try applying abrasive inside any part of the bore and shooting over it for fear of either bulging the barrel or excess and uneven wear like creating a wash out or loose spot directly in front of the constriction or rough spot you are targeting.
I will preface this by saying I have never hand, or fire lapped a barrel. That said, applying a bit of hillbilly logic---Jacketed bullets are HARRRRRd and I suspect that once pushed past any tight spot are highly unlikely to bump-up. So, coating just the obstructed spot(s) and then firing jacketed bullets (at reduced velocities) should work very well. Once sized-down by the obstruction the bullet would remain smaller for the rest of its trip down the barrel, missing all but any other tight spots. It would likely carry some of the lapping compound further into the barrel, but if one were to clean every third or fourth shot it should not cause any unwanted wear.
R.D.M.
Curioushooter,
I just got a M29 that needs some maintenance. I wanted to shoot it but didn't find much of my old 44 stuff, I sold my last 44 in 2003 when I got into 500.
I found a Lee 255 SWC mold and a Lee .430 sizer. I made bullets,coated them, 430 leaded and was not accurate. I opened up the sizer to .431, no leading and very good accuracy. Same load and alloy. I also just got a Mihec mold,dropping .432, shoots clean Hi Teked unsized, just confirmed today.
Even the .432 goes rattling through the throats. I will keep the .431 sizer as is for that SWC / alloy combination.
That is nice to be able to shoot them as cast and eliminate a step.
I have yet to get one of Miha's moulds that didn't cast them larger than specified. That's good because you can always size them down, but sizing them up......Originally Posted by Petander
Don
NRA Certified Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor
NRA Life Member
I always see people recommend jacketed bullets. I tried about 300 of them. It didn't effect the constriction at all. Lapping, either firelapping, or hand lapping is the only way. Broaching is not a method a regular guy can use.
A fellow named Ken Mollohan who wrote for LASC (which presently only has articles against fire lapping written by Mike Bellm) described a clever way to fire lap yet save the throats and seems like it would be especially effective on revolvers. I read about it at Kitchen Table Gunsmith. Yet I cannot find any article actually written by the man. It seems like a good idea with a lot less BS involved. No crudding up cases with abrasive, no special cast bullets, not rolling on plates, no wear imparted to the throats.
My experience to . No help on thread choke
I have found jacketed to help smooth rifling that has sharp burrs , my Rossi 92 for example would cut patches and looking down the bore you would see little pieces of material hung on them , jacketed does seem to help that . When that extreme you can feel a difference when cleaning after shooting jacketed . Won't make it feel like a quality finished barrel but better.
Another plus is making sure the gun is okay functionally before making any changes to it . If it won't work like it should with factory ammo I will send it back for repair or replacement before wasting my time on mods and working up loads for it.
With regards to shooting jacketed bullets what I said was; "simply shooting a couple hundred jacketed bullets with top end loads for the cartridge usually accomplishes the same thing. " "Usually" does not mean always.
Like many things we attempt to do, hoping for a solution to a perceived problem, shooting the jacketed bullets will not potentially change the barrel and/or throats in a manner that can not be undone. It has worked for me....usually...but not always.....to the point I have not fire lapped a revolver barrel in 20+ years...… To me it is always worth a try before fire lapping IF the constriction actually is causing problems of inaccuracy and/or leading. Many times (again, not always) a slight constriction actually does not cause any problems in many revolvers given the type of shooting done with them.
Larry Gibson
“Deficient observation is merely a form of ignorance and responsible for the many morbid notions and foolish ideas prevailing.”
― Nikola Tesla
I ain't a guy that thinks he knows more about any of this than youI don't claim my way of doing any of this is best only that it is the best way I have found so far for me
I always look forward to your posts .
Hmm. If the cyl throats are larger than bore dia + 0.001" then I am fine shooting bore sized + 0.001" bullets. The issue for me is throats smaller & swaging the bullet down before it hits the barrel throat. That is where I get leading & accuracy issues.
EVERY GOOD SHOOTER NEEDS TO BE A HANDLOADER.
NRA Cert. Inst. Met. Reloading & Basic Pistol
barrel throat in a revolver? you mean FORCING CONE??
Charter Member #148
Since ya'll are on the subject I'd like to ask a question. I been shooting my 357/38s lately and on every one of them I'm getting some leading in the forcing cone. They are all getting the same load. A 150grn RCBS swc size to .358 over 4grns of 231in 38 cases. In my Smiths I'm getting good accuracy and no leading in the bore. In my rugers I'm getting soso accuracy and no leading on the bores. They all get some leading in the throats. My question is " is this normal? " A .357 jword bullet basically falls right through the throats and a sized .358 boolit requires some pressure. The ruger throats doo seem a bit tighter than the Smiths. And no I haven't slugged the barrels of any of them and I don't have any pin gauges yet. Thanks for any suggestions.
Ps. I'm using what I believe to be cow as tested by the nice guy that tests lead on this site. Bne? For some reason I can't remember his name.
By some if you mean very minimal yes that is normal "for MY revolvers with plain based bullets" I also get some lead on the front of the cylinder also with these same loads which is 158 gr and 4.3 gr w231
those 358-158-rf are cast of coww cut with pure to 8-9 bhn
Last edited by swheeler; 02-22-2020 at 10:55 PM.
Charter Member #148
Thanks swheeler . Yes it's minimal leading I can get most of it out as long as I clean after shooting. The forcing comes on all of them are factory and seem very rough to my eyes. I wonder if smoothing them up would help any at all I don't know. Im a lifetime shooter but still fairly inexperienced with shooting cast.
My old Lyman said size to groove diameter. After slugging, i ended up with .358, .430 & .452" for Colt GC acp & .451" for an S&W 645 , 45 acp.
30 caliber rifle .309" or .310" Works for me in many different firearms.
Larry Gibson got it right.
Posting Permissions
| BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
| BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
| BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
| C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
| HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
| PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
| LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
| GC | Gas Check |
Reply With Quote